美国科学60秒 SSS 2013-01-21

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　　The 2nd-century Pozzino wreck³ was discovered in 1974 off the coast of Italy in 1974. It’s cargo⁵ included medical equipment like a cupping vessel⁶, iron probe, and tin boxes of supplies. And in one of those boxes, researchers recovered five gray tablets. Now, they’ve analyzed⁷ the antique medication. The work is in the Proceedings⁸ of the National Academy of Sciences. [Gianna Giachi et al., Ingredients of a 2,000-y-old medicine revealed by chemical, mineralogical, and botanical investigations]

　　The pills primarily contained zinc⁹ compounds, probably the active medicinal ingredients. But researchers also detected starch¹⁰, pollen¹¹, charcoal¹², fats and linen¹³ fibers¹⁴. Those fibers helped the tablets hold their round, loaf-like shape, which may be the key to the medication's use: the Greek word meaning “small round loaves” also inspired the word collyrium, or eye-wash. The pills were probably either dissolved in liquid or ground into a powder and used to treat eye conditions. Who knows, maybe Hippocrates used them on his pupils.

　　—Sophie Bushwick

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